IAT CH9

Immortal Ascension Tower

Book 1: Reborn

First Arc: The Child And The Dragon

Chapter 9 – Fellow Disciple, There’s A Snake On Your Shoulders!

“Waa! Thanks so much for waiting for me! I was seriously about to die there!” The bleeding figure was laying on the ground a few steps from where Cheng Hao stood, panting nonstop. His previous tidy and expensive clothes now nothing more than strips of cloth, he now resembled a beggar much like Cheng Hao had when he had first met Liu Biao.

“Do you need anything? Like medicine and stuff?” Cheng Hao eyed the newcomer with curiosity. The first thing that got his attention were the green eyes shining like emeralds, the long, purple-bluish hair and the beautiful features.

Damn, he’s handsome. Maybe not as stunningly handsome as me, but his proportions are way too perfect… How can anybody be almost as good-looking as me and yet be such a klutz?

“Cheng Hao, what are we going to do about this brat?” The snake suddenly came out of his pocket and landed atop his head. He yawned and then looked at the green-eyed youth with interest.

The child looked straight-on at the golden dragon. He looked back and forward between the golden-eyed child and the one-foot-long snake, before letting out a silent scream and falling on his back. “S-snake!”

Seeing the boy’s actions Cheng Hao smiled wryly: he recalled just how gobsmacked he had been when he had first met the at the time gargantuan Blindlight, in a gorge more than a thousand years ago… after all, having a dragon appear out of thin air was nothing short of shocking!

Wait. Something was wrong with this scene… weren’t Primordial Beasts invisible or something? Then how in the world was this random kid capable of seeing the golden dragon?

Two pairs of golden eyes widened until they became as wide as tennis balls, Cheng Hao and Goldy’s jaw both dropped to the ground: no living being not connected through karma with the golden dragon should be able to feel, let alone see, the small creature. That was one of the first few things the dragon had taught Cheng Hao when they had first met in his past life, and during the time the two had spent together, the boy had had many chances to verify this.

To be able to see him it meant he had to have a ridiculously high-quality karma thread connected to the dragon Blindlight.

Cheng Hao was able to see him as the dragon had once accidentally killed one of Cheng Hao’s arch-enemies while it was sleeping, unconsciously building a strong friendly karma thread and thus allowing Cheng Hao to meet him and build a friendly relationship with him. Although the beast had endlessly regretted his actions in the future, it still admitted deep in his heart that after millions of years passed doing nothing but watching the sky, a breath of fresh air such as waging war to the Heavens had actually been really appreciated. There is no doubt that without the golden dragon’s help in his past life, Cheng Hao would have had no chance to reach even a hundredth of his cultivation and thus battle evenly against the Lord of the Heavens, Tian. So it all began because of a single mistake in the part of a sleeping Heavenly Beast and, thanks to that, Cheng Hao and the golden dragon Blindlight could meet.

But this child that Cheng Hao had never even seen before could actually see the golden dragon… As far as he knew, the dragon had deeply hid itself after their defeat by the hands of Tian. It was by pure luck that Cheng Hao had stumbled upon him, so there should be a zero to no chance of him meeting anyone or sewing any kind of Karma connection while Cheng Hao wasn’t around.

For this reason, if such bonds truly existed, it would have to have been prior to that… although his looks were somewhat familiar, Cheng Hao did not recall this child from his past life that he passed together with the Primordial Beast, so the Karma must have been sewn even before he himself had met Blindlight! However, there was a huge problem with this line of thought. And that was, before Cheng Hao woke him up, the Heaven Devouring Dragon Blindlight had been sleeping for millions of years, without having the slightest bit of contact with the outside world!

The green-eyed boy CLEARLY didn’t look like some million-years-old bloke, so how in the world could he see Blindlight? What kind of sorcery was this?

This guy… Is he a friend or an enemy? No karma thread, and yet he can see the bloody snake… Can’t hide him, it’s too late… This is dangerous! Wait. Danger and Snake… Dangerous Snake… That’s right! A snake is dangerous! I should just act as if I hadn’t noticed and shrug my shoulders a little. Blindlight should guess what’s up and will fall off his own accord and that would be the end of it… but why do I suddenly feel as if this is a chance I should not miss?

Goldy felt a cold shiver run down its spine as the golden-eyed youth turned his head around and looked at the golden dragon with a strange expression on his face. Goldy gulped and shed a drop of cold sweat as he noticed the pair of thin lips arranging into a strange smirk… the poor snake could only watch as a delicate and small palm was raised in the air and struck out!

“Eeeeeek, snake!” Cheng Hao screeched as he took a step back and slapped his scaled companion with all his might!

This is for sending me to challenge the final boss halfway through the story, you golden bastard!

The miniature dragon was sent flying through the air and landed a distance of more than thirty feet away! Goldy lay on the ground with an ‘I don’t even care anymore’ expression plastered on its swelled up face.

“Ahh, that was close!” Cheng Hao let out as sigh of ‘relief’.

He was both ‘shocked’ and ‘terrified’ that he had not noticed the dangerous beast resting atop his shoulders. His gaze fell upon the startled green-eyed youth and bowed ‘gratefully’: who knew what kind of ‘dangers’ may have befallen him had he not been warned? What’s more, he even got to slap the damn snake!

“Cheng Hao thanks Fellow Disciple for his aid! May I know Disciple’s name and what business he has with This Humble Disciple?”

Although Cheng Hao’s face was full of gratitude, he had already secretly grasped the golden hairpin in his hand, ready to strike at the minimum notice of any danger.

Shocked to see such courtesy from Cheng Hao, the young boy didn’t hesitate to bow and respond in a similar manner. “This humble disciple is called Xiao Li… I doubt however that Disciple Cheng Hao has ever heard of such Clan, as I come from afar, so much so that it took months to get here! I have only arrived in this Four Divine Beasts’ Mountain Range today and joined this Sect as per the esteemed Clan Master’s secret orders!”

Xiao Clan? Cheng Hao frowned, but then his facial muscles relaxed: nah, it couldn’t be. Although they must have suffered a huge blow after the rebellion against Tian failed, he doubted they would be forced away from their Clan Grounds. The gifts the Jade Emperor gave the Clan prior to his death should have been enough for them to surpass the initial crisis, so they should still be located in that Top-Rate Plane of Existence, far, far away from here. Then again…

The youth eyed the self-proclaimed Xiao Li with interest.

He did mention that he comes from far away. And he only got here after travelling for a few months? That… is actually roughly the time it would take at high-speed inter-spatial travel to cross the distance from there to here! This would also explain why he is somehow able to see Blindlight, it’s in his blood! One mystery solved! On to the next: isn’t the surname of Xiao and those green eyes a sign of the Xiao Clan’s Main Lineage?

Cheng Hao’s gaze fixated on the pair of emerald orbs with extreme interest, until a strange hypothesis took form in his mind.

Is this Xiao Li a Young Master of the Xiao Clan?

“Eh? What’s wrong?” Xiao Li noticed the golden-eyed youth had a strange expression in his face. “Eheheh,” the boy let out a crystalline laugh and smiled cheekily, “Could it be that snake from earlier bit your tongue off? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Cheng Hao snapped awake. He sent a curious glance at Xiao Li and cocked his head to the side, “It’s nothing, really. Just wondering why, since it’s ‘Secret Orders’ from your Xiao Clan’s Master, fellow disciple would go ahead and tell me about it so freely…”

Xiao Li’s eyes lit up. “Oh that? This Disciple was assigned to hut 5742 from Senior Lao, to live alongside fellow Disciple Cheng Hao, at least for the duration of his stay in the Sixth Ring! I had guessed that roommates shouldn’t keep secrets from each other, so I just went ahead and blurted it out!” Xiao Li chuckled embarrassedly. Then, he smiled and bowed deeply, “I hope fellow Disciple Cheng Hao will treat me well!”

# # #

If you still can’t tell by now, this happens before the events in chapter 5 and after those in chapter 4. It will also be the same for the next few chapters. Too lazy to count how many exactly, so…

Deal with it. I don’t have time for this. ಠ_ಠ

Please. I’m actually editing out and adding in so much stuff I don’t even know myself ಥ_ಥ

Anyways, just wanted to point that out for people who have never heard of stories jumping back and forth… cuz you’ll be seeing that a LOT here.